Chapter 9 Additional Tactics to go after homophobic Christianity. Updated.
With these tactics, and the strategy and tactics from earlier chapters we have more than enough possibilities to start defeating homophobic Christianity. We will undoubtedly learn more.
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Make homophobia visible.
Constantly pound on the issue and make the issue prominent. Don’t allow homophobic Churches to have a public image without their homophobia being prominent and them labeled as the enemy of Gays. Don’t allow their homophobia to be a minor issue unknown to most.
Don’t allow churches which tolerate Gays as 2nd class members or don’t fully support the rights of Gay people to escape being labeled homophobic.
Make sure that when their name is mentioned, they are known as a homophobic church with that a prominent part of their identity. Make sure that as a homophobic church they are understood to be bigoted and vicious and stupid.
Research all the prominent churches in the city and identify which ones are homophobic. Perhaps make a map of the homophobic churches. Make the issue of homophobia an issue in all things.
Whenever it is possible, introject the issue of homophobia. If a company is opening a plant, are they homophobic, if a dignitary of a foreign nation is visiting, what is their nation’s record.
Always, express contempt for homophobic churches. If they mail out literature and you receive it in the mail, burn it. If they hand out homophobic literature in the Gay neighborhood or at a Pride event, keep the hand out and burn it. Make a video of the burning with a commentary about the people that handout homophobic Christian literature.
If they ask for some favor from the government, funding, support for a social service they run, speak up against it on the basis of their homophobia.
Deny them participation in government whenever possible. In Dallas there were many churches giving invocations to the Dallas City Council. What committees are homophobes appointed to needs to be investigated and their appointments opposed.
One important thing about the invocation project is that it was something one person could do. It is important to indicate which projects can be done by one person, or by just two persons, and have a good chance of initial success. The author reviewed the invocations given, gave a detailed report, and the practice of allowing homophobes to give the invocations stopped. It also got some local news reporting.
Identifying weak spots where one person can successfully combat homophobic Christianity is important for two reasons. First, we want to identify areas where we can successfully go after homophobic Christianity with a good chance of success with not much effort to fight homophobic Christianity. Second, one person projects are something that can be initiated by one person without an organization support. Initially we are going to have a lot cases where a person is not a part of a group in their city. Even after we are mobilized, there will be situations where an area, county or city will just have one activist, and one-person projects will represent things they might do.
When some church calls for the execution of Gays, compare the beliefs of the other homophobic churches and what they use as a basis, and show that the church calling for the execution of Gays is merely the pot of heated homophobia boiling over. Don’t allow these other churches to distance themselves from the church calling for the execution of Gays. The church that wants to execute Gays is merely taking their homophobia to its logical conclusion.
When homophobic Christian groups appeal for U.S. government help for a problem of persecution in a foreign land on the basis of human rights, point out that they are opportunistically using the issue of human rights, but they don’t support human rights. In particular where they have a record of persecuting Gays in that nation. Also, point out that the first thing they likely would do if they weren’t being persecuted would be to persecute Gays.
Point out which denominations are colluding with dictators.
Show how Christianity is complicit with colonialism and the destruction of indigenous culture and religion around the world. Educate the public how Christianity destroyed the original religions in many parts of the world. Point to ancient temples in Japan and asked where the ancient temples in Latin America or Europe.
What American denominations were involved with the destruction of indigenous religions in Africa?
We need to point out which cultures survived because they decisively defeated Christianity. The obliteration of indigenous religion in Uganda, was due to Christianity in collusion with European imperialists were able to defeat the indigenous monarchy, where as the Chinese and Japanese were able to defeat the Christians which is why they still have ancient temples and their religions.
People have other identities besides being Christian. We need to make sure they understand when their other identities conflict with being Christian.
We need to alert Gays elsewhere about the anti-Gay programs of American missionaries. We need to alert Gays globally how Korean Christians persecute Gays. The campaign against homophobic Christianity needs to be global.
When the local paper is talking about Our Lady of Guadalupe, point out that it was a myth used to destroy indigenous culture, consolidate the Spanish conquest of Mexico, and enable imperial rule over them.
Don’t let people privilege Christians over other religions. If they want God capitalize, then they should capitalize God or Gods when used for other religions. Don’t let other religious practices be called superstitions or mythologies.
Point out to people that the origin of their Christianity is some imperial oppressor in the past, whether Roman, Spanish, Portuguese, British, French or some other imperial power.
We need to point out to people when their Christianity originates with slavery.
When a foreign government adopts anti-Gay policies, it needs to have serious consequences. Recently in 2023, though the Ugandan government adopted a bill with a death penalty for Gays, the Democratic Biden administration still allowed several Ugandan government officials to attend a convention in Dallas, Texas in Sept.2023. The fact that the Democrats were lax on Uganda’s homophobia didn’t seem to bother the LGBT Democrats.
When religious leaders in foreign nations criticize an American ambassador for being Gay, have consequences for that denomination. Deny them visas for visiting the United States. If it is a Catholic bishop make it a diplomatic issue and call the Vatican ambassador in for talks. Stop all discussion of their possible problems in a foreign nation. Homophobes from other nations should be considered undesirable aliens.
When so-called social justice activists are giving homophobia a free pass, call it out. Don’t participate in coalitions where there are homophobic groups involved.
In your personal life, absolutely don’t tolerate homophobia from family members or relatives. No agreeing to disagree. No peace with homophobia at the dinner table or holidays.
Gays are so used to homophobia being present in society and so conditioned to think nothing can be done, we overlook ways of challenging it. There is a tendency to accept the abridgment of our rights and our humanity as that is the way things are.
We need to look at everything and think about where it might intersect with the issue of homophobia and if it does, agitate the issue.
We need to look for pressure points to make homophobic Christian groups regret they were every homophobic.
This list of additional tactics is somewhat short, but with the actions discussed in earlier chapters it is more than enough to start with for a new movement to fight homophobic Christianity. Undoubtedly, we will come up with additional tactics as we get started.
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